Norfolk Botanical Garden workers are considering forming a union to push for better pay, a safer workplace and more input on garden policy.
“They love what they do,” said Bridget Fitzgerald, the union organizer working with Norfolk garden employees. “They sometimes get frustrated with the fact that they don’t feel as if they’re being heard.”
For instance, workers complain the current inclement weather policy can be unclear, leaving workers uncertain if a weather event will mean the garden will close.
“There really is no coordinated response to identify, and plan to identify and respond to, the effects of working in high heat,” Fitzgerald said.
“There’s posters here and there; sometimes they’re told, ‘hey, don’t forget to take extra breaks.’ But there’s nothing that feels like there’s any kind of coordinated effort.”
Workers see unionizing as a way to change that and establish clearer rules and procedures
About 70% of the garden’s 78 eligible workers signed union authorization cards, easily surpassing the 30% required by the National Labor Relations Board to trigger an election.
On July 23, the workers will vote on whether or not to unionize. If successful, they’ll be represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
Garden management said in a statement that the workers are the heart of the nearly-90-year-old nonprofit.
“We respect our employees’ right to organize or to refrain from organizing,” reads a statement emailed to WHRO by Chief Marketing Officer Kelly Welsh. “We remain dedicated to supporting our entire team, cultivating a workplace that reflects our shared vision and values.”
Norfolk would be the second botanical garden to unionize under IAM in Virginia. Henrico County’s Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden workers organized in 2024, which inspired the push in Norfolk.
The effort aligns with an uptick in union membership in Virginia in recent years. Membership has risen from 3.7% in 2022 to 5.2% in 2024. It’s the first time the commonwealth, historically inhospitable to unionization, has cracked 5% since 2015.
Fitzgerald, who organized the effort in Henrico, said workers at the two gardens have many of the same concerns.
Several employees feel as though their suggestions to improve workplace safety and the garden overall go nowhere. Management sets and changes policy without worker input, sometimes without explaining their impact to employees, according to Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald said pay is also an issue. Many start at the garden making around $15 per hour and can, after a few years, make close to $22 per hour. But in a market like Norfolk, Fitzgerald said workers find themselves struggling to get by.
“More and more what we’re seeing in the labor movement is a lot of workers saying ‘it’s great that I can live my values through my profession; however, I can’t pay my rent,’” Fitzgerald said. “And unionizing is a way to level that playing field and negotiate fairer wages.”
Nationally, union workers on average earn about 17% more per week on average than nonunion workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, though that number doesn’t factor in geography, age or industry.
Garden management contends they’ve increased wages over recent years to stay competitive in the market and have bumped benefits for full and part-time staff, including giving parental leave for full-timers.
But Fitzgerald said employees want to push for livable wages for the area, not just competitive pay for an industry that’s largely not unionized and made up of nonprofit organizations. A full time worker without kids would need to make between $24 and $25 per hour to live comfortably in Hampton Roads, according to a living wage calculator developed by MIT.
“Closing that gap a little bit is what the workers would like to see,” Fitzgerald said. “They’re not out to break the garden.”
Ahead of the election, Fitzgerald said garden management hired an outside consultant who she called a “high-priced union buster” to spread anti-union messaging.
Welsh said the garden sought their help due to National Labor Relations Act guidelines on what employers can say during union elections.
“Our intent is to support transparency and open dialogue so that all employees can make their own informed decisions about union representation and its impact on them,” she said.
A union win in the election isn’t the end of the process, either. Once certified by the federal labor board, the union will negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with management, a process that can sometimes take years. The provisions in the contract are legally binding, which Fitzgerald said will give workers some security about what’s agreed upon.
